This is an approach which I have used successfully when revising clusters of poetry for GCSE. (Apologies for any parts which seem commonplace or obvious.) The basic idea is familiar - to practise summing up the ‘essence’ of each poem, so that students feel that they have a pinned-down overview of each – a handy... Continue Reading →
Folding feedback into learning
Number #2 in an occasional series of short posts on feedback, appearing in no particular order
Post-Levels: tracking progress in English at Key Stage 3
Thoughts on how schools are assessing progress and attainment in English at Key Stage 3 This post is based very closely on an original article for NATE‘s Teaching English (Issue 8, Summer 2015) Post-levels, it has been left to schools to decide on how to track progress at Key Stage 3. A number of teaching schools […]
Written comments: three simple rules (and a fourth)
Number #1 in an occasional series of short posts on feedback, appearing in no particular order
Missing open book exams
Thoughts on ‘closed book’ and 'open book' exams Parliament has debated whether students should continue to be allowed only ‘closed book’ exams in GCSE English and English Literature. (Really, of course, they are ‘absent book’ exams. Closed books would just be cruel.) The arguments for ‘closed book’ exams – now dominant at GCSE, AS and... Continue Reading →
Developing critical readers: preparing students for GCSE English Language reading papers
Thoughts on how students are taught to write critically about texts in exams This post was originally an article for NATE‘s Teaching English (Issue 12, Autumn 2016) Preparing for the new English GCSEs has compelled English departments to put their Key Stage 4 curriculum through yet another revision. For many, this has been taken as an opportunity […]
Objectives and purpose in English
Thoughts on learning objectives and on the way we frame learning in English
James Durran 